Tag Archives: Grand Canyon Institute

We expect our drinking water to be clean and safe and our lakes, rivers and streams to be places we can fish and swim. Why is this so? Forty-four years ago on April 22, the world embarked upon a still unfinished journey to protect the environment from the unintended effects of our industrial society. The Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act are just two of the key pieces of legislation our Congress enacted to ensure America’s skies were clear and its waters were fishable, drinkable and swimmable.

Glaring headlines about Arizona’s public worker retirement system suggest that your typical retired teacher, firefighter or police officer is sipping margaritas on a beach somewhere enjoying a six-figure pension. Meanwhile the state’s pension funds are running out of money, leaving you, the taxpayer, stuck with the bill.

While we rightly have concern over the welfare of children in the more than 6,000 cases that Child Protective Services failed to investigate, imagine what the reaction would be if 150,000 people in Arizona went missing and there was no investigation.

Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to simplify Arizona’s sales tax system could undercut revenues for growing communities through changes in how construction materials are taxed, according to a report by the nonprofit Grand Canyon Institute.

We’ve heard many attacks on public employees this year, even though, like most Arizonans, they’ve struggled with rising workloads and stagnant pay levels. Still, the Goldwater Institute claims public unions covering employees like teachers, police and firefighters are costing state and local governing entities $550 million above market compensation.